Number Nine
by IWantToBeAMalfoy
Summary: It's the first day of term and Hermione is already sick of Harry and Ron. Thankfully, someone else turns up and saves her in more ways than one. [HermionexOC]
1. A New Student

**Disclaimer: **As much as I'd LOVE to own Tom Felton, I'm afraid all I own of Harry Potter are three li'l DVDs and some stickers.  
**Author's note: **A Hermione fic for my friend. Ties in with his fic. As to the meaning of the title...well, you're going to have to go out there and do a little research.

**Number Nine  
**1. A New Student

"Have you seen the new kid?" Ron whispered to Harry and Hermione, nudging the latter in the ribs.  
"Ouch! Ronald, you could just point!" she whined.  
Ron pulled a face and pointed at a medium-sized, dark-haired, fairly skinny boy talking to Dumbledore.  
"He's in the year above us and he's only just found out he's a wizard."  
"Is that common?" Harry asked.  
"No!" Ron and Hermione replied in unison.  
"D'you reckon he's a Squib?" Ron asked.  
"Unlikely," said Hermione, craning her neck to get a better look at the new boy, "He hadn't even heard of Hogwarts until he got the letter. Squibs have to apply through their parents."  
Harry and Ron stared at her.  
"How did you know?" Harry asked.  
"I like to enlighten myself on how the school is run," Hermione answered, like it was obvious.  
"No," said Ron, "How did you know he hadn't heard of Hogwarts? Have you been talking to him?"  
"Well…"  
"When?"  
"On the train."  
"You were with us on the train!" said Harry.  
Hermione sighed, "You really are dimwitted, aren't you? Remember when I went to the bathroom and didn't come back for a really long time?"  
Harry and Ron looked blank.  
"You were playing checkers?"  
Harry continued to look blank whilst Ron shrugged a little,.  
"Ron made a crude remark?"  
"Oh, the bathroom window thing!" Harry exclaimed and burst out laughing again.  
"It wasn't funny!" Hermione snapped, "Anyway, if you had been listening, you would _know_ that I'd been late _because_ I was talking to Tom."  
"Who the bloody hell is Tom?" Ron asked carelessly.  
"The new boy!" Hermione nearly shouted, "My goodness, you need a hearing charm put on your ears!"  
"So what's he like?" Harry asked.  
"Well…" Hermione started, but drifted off into a trance, a strange smile twisted across her face.  
It had all started at about one o clock on the Hogwart's Express.

"_I'm just going to nip to the bathroom," Hermione told Harry and Ron. They didn't look up. In fact, Hermione wasn't sure they had acknowledged her statement at all, but she left anyway. As soon as she stepped out of the cabin she was almost knocked over by a flustered-looking Slytherin girl who still hadn't changed into her robes. Hermione walked along a number of corridors before catching the eye of someone she really didn't want to see. She swirled around and attempted to go back the other way, but Draco Malfoy had hold of her shoulder.  
_"_Well, well, if it isn't the Mudblood Granger," he said. There was something different about his voice that Hermione couldn't quite place; it almost sounded like he _wasn't _sneering.  
_"_What do you want, Malfoy?" she said quickly.  
_"_I've seen someone you'll really like," he said in a whisper, "Three cabins down. A kid reading this fat book. Looked like a dictionary. You're into bookworms, right?"  
__Hermione knotted her eyebrows in confusion, "Why are you telling me this?"  
__Draco shrugged, "Ever since meeting her, I've had the weirdest urge to help people."  
_"_Met who?"  
_"_Si-" he began, but quickly corrected himself, "It matters not. Now get lost. I've helped people enough for one day."  
__He strode off without another word._

_Hermione continued walking, and passed the cabin Draco had mentioned. She stopped. Was it worth trusting Malfoy on this one? She turned and peered inside the cabin, spotting a boy roughly her age on the seat, reading, exactly as Malfoy had said, a huge book which she recognised as _The Standard Book of Spells, Chapter 2_. She watched him for a while, getting rather charmed by the passionate concentration on his face, and the lively sparkle in his eyes. She barely noticed that he glanced up from his book and looked right at her. After a good twenty seconds of eye-contact, she snapped out of her trance and timidly knocked on the door.  
_"_Sorry," she said, sliding open the door, "I didn't mean to stare. I just…well, I don't know, really."  
__The boy smiled and extended a hand, "Thomas Dally, nice to meet you."  
__Hermione grinned back and took his hand, "Hermione Granger."  
__For half a heart-stopping minute they stared into each others' eyes before Tom realised they were still holding hands. He pulled away nervously and laughed a little.  
_"_Sorry," he said, "You…you have really nice eyes."  
__Hermione giggled, "So do you. You can get so lost in them."  
__She stopped dead when she realised what she'd just said. Tom just laughed, "Thanks! Do you want to sit down?" He indicated the seat next to him. Hermione smoothed down the front of her robes and sat down, ignoring the fact that she really needed to go to the bathroom. Talking to Tom seemed somehow more important.  
_"_What house are you in?" Hermione asked, "I haven't seen you in Gryffindor."  
_"_I don't know yet," Tom replied.  
_"_Oh, are you a first year?" Hermione asked, surprised; he seemed too mature to be eleven years old.  
_"_No, I'm a fourth year," Tom said, "But I've only just joined."  
_"_Wow! So…what does that make you? A Squib?"  
_"_Nope. I was supposed to get my Hogwarts letter along with everyone else, but the bloody owl got shot on an annual pheasant-shoot. I wouldn't have known if my dog hadn't decided to make a detour on our walk and dug the letter up out of the ground."  
_"_That's quite a story!" Hermione said, impressed.  
_"_Yep," said Tom, leaning back in his seat, "But the story doesn't reflect on the personality, I'm afraid. I'm just an ordinary, pureblood wizard."  
_"_Don't let Draco Malfoy hear you say that, he'll never let you go!"  
__Tom laughed, "A Slytherin, right?"  
_"_Yeah! How did you know?"  
__Tom indicated the book on his lap, "I've been doing a little background reading to get myself prepared."  
_"_That's what I did before my first year!" Hermione said.  
_"_Hogwarts is a fascinating school."  
_"_I think so, too!" Hermione was getting more and more excited with every word Tom said.  
_"_Most of the people around here just don't appreciate it."  
__Hermione was practically hyperventilating.  
_"_Sorry, I have to go," she garbled, dashing out of the room before she fainted. She leaned her back against the wall and breathed deeply. She regained her composure and began to walk back to Harry and Ron, passing Draco on the way.  
_"_I never thought I'd say this," she said to him, "But, thank you!"_


	2. Encounters

**Disclaimer: **Still don't own it #pines for Draco Malfoy ownership#  
**Author's note: **Second chapter…hmm…yeah…I'm in it.

**Number Nine  
**2. Encounters

Saturday morning, all the girls were asleep in their dorm; apart from Hermione that was. Silently she slipped out of bed and dressed in the best clothes she could find. A quick examination in the mirror told her all she needed to know.  
_Great, _she thought, running her fingers through hastily brushed hair, _I look like a dork.  
_"Something important today, dear?" asked the mirror, sleepily. Hermione made a shushing noise and wildly glanced around to check her room-mates were still sound asleep. They were. It _was_ 7:00 in the morning.  
The common room was empty and she curled up on her favourite armchair, book in hand and wondering what she should say to Tom. Tom, tall, dark, handsome, Tom. She gave a small giggle and tried to concentrate on her book. She ran her fingers through her hair again, determined that it should be at least remotely flat by the time she went to see him.  
Others soon came began to come down and head out of the room, eagerly awaiting the first breakfast of the year. Suddenly, Hermione wasn't hungry. She couldn't go down to the Great Hall for breakfast. She couldn't. She simply wasn't…  
A grumble from her stomach snapped her out of her thoughts.  
_OK_, she reasoned with herself, _so you're just terrified. It's no big deal.  
_She got up and walked to the portrait that would lead her out of the common room. A few steps away from it she froze, another girl knocking into her from behind as she did so.  
"Sorry," she mumbled. The girl just sneered at her and darted off towards the Great Hall.  
_Follow her!_ Hermione screamed at herself. Her legs obeyed before her brain had a chance to process it. Trying to keep up with the girl's relentless pace was somewhat of a distraction from Tom, and by the time she got to breakfast, she was so out-of-breath, she didn't feel scared or anxious at all. She saw a shot of dark hair and smiled. That smile faded dramatically when she saw it was only Harry. There was no way she could get to the Ravenclaw table (Tom's table) without passing Harry, and he was bound to force her to eat with him. She sighed resignedly and went over to him.

"Morning, Hermione," Harry yawned.  
"Morning," She responded, unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice.  
"Don't worry," Harry continued, "Ron'll be down soon."  
"Huh?" Hermione glanced around – she hadn't actually noticed Ron's absence, "Oh, great."  
"What about me?" asked Ron, plonking himself down beside Harry.  
"Nothing," Harry replied.  
They ate their breakfast quickly, Harry and Ron making stupid jokes about Quaffles and Hermione snatching continual glances at Tom.  
"Well," Harry said loudly once they'd finished eating, "me and Ron are off to get some Quidditch practise in. Why don't you give some first years the grand tour of Hogwarts; I'm sure you'll think of lots of things to bore them with."  
"_Bye_, Harry," Hermione said, wishing he would hurry up and leave.  
"See you then," he waved as he and Ron departed.  
_Finally!  
_She got up, smoothed down her skirt (which, if it was any shorter, would have been an arrestable offence), tried to flatten her hair down a bit more and walked towards him.

"Good morning did you sleep well I've heard the Ravenclaw beds can be quite firm I hope they weren't too bad I may be able to help if they were how was breakfast I should warn you the bagels can be stale sometimes although it's not the house-elves' fault really they don't do it on purpose in fact I run a sort of charity for them and it's not that popular but maybe you'd like to be involved and…and…er…"  
She realised she hadn't taken a breath in almost a minute. Tom smiled a little and took a deep breath.  
"Good morning yes I did sleep well my bed was fine but thank you for your offered help I didn't know the bagels were stale as I didn't try one but I'll bear it in mind I feel very strongly about house-elf freedom myself and would be delighted to help with your campaign."  
Hermione had to sit down and clutch her side from laughing so hard, "I'm sorry!"  
"It's alright," Tom replied, laughing along, too.  
"I sometimes do make a fool of myself in front of people I really like," she froze. What had she just said?  
Tom's eyes widened a little, "You like me?"  
Hermione swallowed nervously and slowly nodded. A smile flickered across Tom's face, but only for a second.  
"We've only just met," he pointed out.  
"So what?" Hermione said, her confidence slowly returning from Tom's brief enthusiasm, "Who's to say how long it takes to develop feelings for someone?"  
Tom fidgeted with his fingers in his lap; Hermione resisted the urge to reach over and place her hand on top of his.  
"I'll need time to think," Tom said diplomatically, "I'll talk to you later."  
He got up and started towards the exit. Hermione's lower lip quivered. She hadn't exactly had a rich history with the male of the species, but that didn't make being shot down any easier. She rose from her seat, as she could see some of the other Ravenclaws looking at her as though willing her back to her own damn table. She didn't want to leave the Great Hall just yet, as she might run into Tom, so she started to go back to the Gryffindor table to contemplate for a while.

As she walked, she bumped into a brown-haired Slytherin girl who looked quite agitated.  
"Get out of the _way_," she snapped, true Slytherin style. Hermione gladly obliged until the girl apparently changed her mind and called back, "Oh, unless you've seen this guy. Draco Malfoy? Blond hair, grey eyes-"  
"I know _exactly_ who you mean," Hermione said with venom in her voice, "And if I _had_ seen him, believe me, you'd know, because I would have put a hex on him."  
"Well, then I suppose If I _had_ seen him," the girl continued, not missing a beat, and mimicking Hermione's tone precisely, "I would know who to track down and crucify."  
She eyed Hermione for a second before spinning round and examining the tables, obviously in search of Malfoy.  
Hermione watched her for a moment before deciding she wasn't worth her time. She span round only to come nose-to-nose with Tom. She backed off instantly.  
"I've thought about it," Tom said immediately, "and…"  
At a loss for words – if the jiggling about and wordless mouthing were anything to go by – Tom just leant down and pecked Hermione on the cheek. She flushed scarlet as he dashed away. She watched him go. She wasn't often speechless…


End file.
